If we want to encourage local people to shop locally then please make it easy for them to park near the shops
I live in St Albans, a lovely medieval (and Roman) town. It has some wonderful independent businesses in the form of shops, but over the last 12 months at least I have noticed many of them closing.
Why? There is nowhere to park for a start. And when you find somewhere it is hideously expensive.
I spend currently £3 per day just to take my son to his movie-making workshop run by St Albans Film Festival. That is costing me £15 for five days just to drop him off.
On top of this, the car parks were mostly built in the 1960s when cars were a lot smaller. I don’t want to risk scraping my car in an old-fashioned multi-story if I can avoid it.
The City Council here has clamped down recently on any kind of parking facilities by issuing penalty charges.
No wonder people here are going away from their local shops in town to out of town shopping areas.
It was reported some weeks ago in The Telegraph that St Albans had a lot to offer to shoppers – apart from the parking.
You don’t say.
Yes, parking charges are a cash-cow for council -stripped budgets due to Government clampdowns.
But doesn’t the Government understand that by doing this, they are harming the economy in the form that we actually need it the most?